URC: Munster v Connacht, Saturday, Thomond Park, 7.35 – Live on: TG4 & Premier Sports
Any interprovincial derby carries its own narrative, but even a cursory glance at the URC table demonstrates that this meeting between the two Irish provinces who have had difficult starts to the season carries additional significance.
Rarely can Munster and Connacht have gone into a game so far adrift of their other two provincial rivals. Whereas Leinster and Ulster went into the weekend occupying the top two places in the table, Connacht did so in 12th place and Munster in 14th, with a sizeable 12-point gap between the respective pairs of Irish teams.
Accordingly, Graham Rowntree and Andy Friend have restored pretty much every player who was on duty in the international window. Munster welcome back captain Peter O’Mahony, Joey Carbery, Craig Casey and Tadhg Beirne, named on the World Rugby Team of the Year last weekend, despite him starting all three of Ireland’s Nations Series games.
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The newly capped duo of Jeremy Loughman and Jack Crowley are also accommodated on the bench, while their Ireland ‘A’ contingent of Gavin Coombes, named in a 6/2 split on the bench, Calvin Nash and Shane Daly will all be out to prove a point. In the process, Munster retain eight of the starting side which recorded that encouraging win over the South Africa Select XV at Páirc Uí Chaoimh.
Friend names six players in the Connacht squad who were involved with either Ireland or the Ireland ‘A’ side, as Dave Heffernan, Finlay Bealham, Gavin Thornbury, the newly capped Cian Prendergast, Caolin Blade and Bundee Aki are all included in the starting XV, although Mack Hansen is rested after starting all three Irish Tests.
Shane Delahunt, who has recovered from an eight-month injury lay-off, is in line for a potential first appearance of the season off the bench, where likewise there’s a 6-2 split, meaning Niall Murray, Oisín Dowling and Paul Boyle can all be called upon.
“Munster away at Thomond Park is never an easy task but I thought we were close last year and the previous year we won there,” said Friend. “You can’t just rock up to Thomond and think you’re going to win, you’ve got to work your backside off and bring an element of physicality along with accuracy in what you are doing.”
Munster are indeed loaded with power up front and on the bench, where the 19-year-old Edwin Edogbo is in line for his eighth appearance. They will assuredly have been wounded by the manner Connacht outscrummed them when winning 20-11 in round four in Galway.
But in the backs, where Antoine Frisch makes his first URC start as he continues his midfield partnership with Rory Scannell from the South African game, they lack the physicality normally associated with them over the years.
Indeed, with Casey’s quick pass, and both Carbery and Scannell as playmakers, this is a backline designed to play the kind of brave, attacking rugby which highlighted the South African win.
But whereas Connacht have steadied their ship by winning three of their last four, Munster have lost three of their last four URC games and, indeed, five of their first seven.
Munster do hold a 33-8 head-to-head record over Connacht, with one match drawn. Yet, incredibly, they have lost their last five Irish derbies, including three this season, and one ventures they will be acutely aware of this too.
On the flip side, Connacht have won three of the last four meetings between these two, and even the one defeat, by 20-18 in October last year, featured a singularly questionable try for Munster. So they will travel to Limerick having long ditched any phobia or inferiority complex from the prospect of playing there.
The losers will feel further adrift of the playoff picture and qualification for next season’s Champions Cup. Given Connacht have already negotiated their trek to South Africa in what has been a tougher opening salvo of fixtures, Munster’s need is arguably the more acute, all the more so at Thomond Park, where they lost last time out against Ulster.
MUNSTER: Mike Haley; Calvin Nash, Antoine Frisch, Rory Scannell, Shane Daly; Joey Carbery, Craig Casey; Josh Wycherley, Diarmuid Barron, Roman Salanoa; Jean Kleyn, Tadhg Beirne; Peter O’Mahony (capt), John Hodnett, Alex Kendellen.
Replacements: Niall Scannell, Jeremy Loughman, John Ryan, Edwin Edogbo, Jack O’Donoghue, Paddy Patterson, Jack Crowley, Gavin Coombes.
CONNACHT: John Porch; Byron Ralston, Tom Farrell, Bundee Aki, Alex Wootton; Jack Carty (capt) Caolin Blade; Denis Buckley, Dave Heffernan, Finlay Bealham; Josh Murphy, Gavin Thornbury; Cian Prendergast, Conor Oliver, Jarrad Butler.
Replacements: Shane Delahunt, Peter Dooley, Jack Aungier, Niall Murray, Oisín Dowling, Kieran Marmion, Conor Fitzgerald, Paul Boyle.
Referee: Gianluca Gnecchi (FIR)
Forecast: Munster to win.
